Originally published in 1992, Thomas Moore's powerful and uplifting book offers a new way of thinking about the problems and creative opportunities of daily life. Following 12 years' training as a Catholic monk, Moore later became a psychotherapist, and holds degrees in theology, musicology, and religion. From this broad base of experience and scholarship he explains how to look more deeply into emotional problems and to appreciate sacredness in ordinary things—real friends, satisfying conversation, fulfilling work, and touching experiences that stay in the memory.

"A radical and profoundly capacious view of human nature is the foundation for this eloquent discourse on living an imaginative, 'soulful' life—one that embraces both body and spirit—in modern times.... Calling upon theories of C.G. Jung, Freud, Plato, and such Renaissance thinkers as Marsilio Ficino and Paracelsus, the author reexamines Western archetypes and myths, citing Demeter and Persephone, Narcissus and Odysseus as well as Jesus for guidance in appreciating 'the paradoxical mysteries that blend light and darkness into the grandeur of what human life and culture can be.' Taking issue with current psychological precepts, beginning with the assumption that we have control over much of our lives and including our reverence for innocence and a belief in the triumph of the good, Moore urges that 'we let the soul speak and show itself as it is, not as we wish it would be.'... In graceful, deceptively gentle prose, he rejects formula, rigidity and a self-worth measured by accepted norms and thus upends contemporary spiritual and religious mores. The book is invigorating, demanding and revolutionary."—Publishers Weekly